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Alaska Airlines - fuck it

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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002707586_plane28m.html

Granted, no one died or was injured in this incident, but this is getting close to the line where I think people are just not going to bother anymore -- despite the alleviations of the problem in this incident being "well carried out", apparently. :(

A-lags-a got me to L.A. and back safely last week; and I realize this could happen to any airline really, but the cause-n-effects seen with Alaska Air recently are pretty clear; and there's enough of a record here such that I'm going to reconsider, even if they make the flights cheaper (which is doubtful, given that I think they're bottoming out as much as they can right now.)

― dali madison's nut (donut), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 21:43 (twenty years ago)

A better story here:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/253673_alaska28.html

― dali madison's nut (donut), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 21:46 (twenty years ago)

hooray for outsourcing maintenance jobs away from unionized american workers

― kingfish holiday travesty (kingfish 2.0), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 22:10 (twenty years ago)

Even faced with their consistently significant number of aircraft damage incidents over the past few years, the federal government put up a half million bucks for Alaska Airlines paint one of their planes like a giant salmon "to promote the Alaskan fishing industry."

http://www.alaskaair.com/as/alaska/images/promos/fishAC.jpg

― elmo, patron saint of nausea (allocryptic), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 22:12 (twenty years ago)

That is pretty fucking sweet, don't act like you don't think so too.

― Allyzay must fight Zolton herself. (allyzay), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 22:15 (twenty years ago)

it looks cool, but i'm disturbed that the fed gov't paid for it.

― elmo, patron saint of nausea (allocryptic), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 22:20 (twenty years ago)

1.Did Alaska Air have the choice to divert that half a mil for actual improvements?

2.Sorry, but I'd rather have millions get spent painting airplanes like giant flying salmon than maintaining the deaths of soldiers abroad in Iraq for, like, a week.

― dali madison's nut (donut), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 22:27 (twenty years ago)

Giant flying salmon are awesome, but I don't think it accomplishes the goal of promoting Alaskan fishing industry. Maybe if it was a giant flying salmon fillet with beurre blanc or some tasty mango/lime salsa...

Alaska's pilots must have stopped doing the walk-around, or the baggage guy clipped it after they were on board.

― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 22:32 (twenty years ago)

xpost

it was a classic pork-barrel addition to one of the budget appropriations bills -- it earmarks a specific amount of money to a specific recipient for specific purpose. in this case, it was 500 thousand dollars granted to alaska air to promote the alaskan fishing industry. no lie.

anyway, while i have no love for our current federal government, it's pretty stupid and glib to say that the money would necessarily go towards iraq. perhaps they could have actually funded the 'no child left behind' for once, at least for a couple schools. right?

― elmo, patron saint of nausea (allocryptic), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 22:40 (twenty years ago)

we can perpetuae this shell game argument all we want, but if we're arguing about funding from "the federal government", anything that's currently being endowed millions or billions is fair game.

― dali madison's nut (donut), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 22:44 (twenty years ago)

"perpetuate" (sorry, matthew)

― dali madison's nut (donut), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 22:44 (twenty years ago)

fishplane good, iraq war bad. got it.

― elmo, patron saint of nausea (allocryptic), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 22:54 (twenty years ago)

nobody died whens a salmon flied

― dali madison's nut (donut), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 22:59 (twenty years ago)

question: how much realistically did the fact that these were outsourced workers increase the likelihood of such an event happening?

― ambrose (ambrose), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 23:09 (twenty years ago)

granted, while past reports of unionized ground crew citations is missing from the article, it does state that UK-based Menzies has had a number of fuckups at Sea-Tac airport alone (Menzies being the company that provided the non-union jobs for Alaska Air)

In brief, ambrose, I don't know. The best person to ask would be a neutral Sea-Tac airport ground crew employee who's worked at least five years or so.

― dali madison's nut (donut), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 23:17 (twenty years ago)

>question: how much realistically did the fact that these were outsourced workers increase the likelihood of such an event happening?<

Umm, probably not much at all. On the upside, the guy who hit the plane will probably get fired, whereas the union guy would probably get to keep his job. After all, the guy is just driving a luggage tug. I have a feeling it doesn't take years of driving a glorified golf cart to master.

Shame for Alaska Airline too, BTW. Consistently one of the top rated airlines in the US for customer service.

― Alan Conceicao (Alan Conceicao), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 23:23 (twenty years ago)

There are outsourced companies that do well, and outsourced companies that fuck up. It seems like Menzies in the latter category.

Dare I say that I think the union vs. outsource argument is kinda pointless here?

― dali madison's nut (donut), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 23:34 (twenty years ago)

I think more at issue are all the cost cutting measures Alaska has been taking. Before they fired all their union baggage handlers, they cut their pilots' salaries by an average of 26%. It's my opinion that when employees feel abused, the rate of malignant compliance goes way up. People start doing the absolute minimum required of them, and not always in the timeliest fashion. Maintenance and safety issues that people feel are nitpicky start to not be done. Also, in corporate cost-cutting, companies are happy to be rid of expensive people (generally the more experienced craft types). Less-experienced maintenance people with malignant compliance mindsets are the most dangerous people to work around, anywhere.

― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 23:45 (twenty years ago)

question: how much realistically did the fact that these were outsourced workers increase the likelihood of such an event happening?

Remember how awful the scabs were that played during the last NFL strike?

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 29 December 2005 00:56 (twenty years ago)

he lives in the UK, so I don't think he does.

But I do, PP. It was like watching a reality TV show where people pretended to be NFL players, except they actually were.

― dali madison's nut (donut), Thursday, 29 December 2005 01:02 (twenty years ago)

question: how much realistically did the fact that these were outsourced workers increase the likelihood of such an event happening?

well, for one thing, as pointed out in either the Times or PI article (don't remember, and it could be both) the tug hitting the plane was not reported right away as it was supposed to. I don't think it was actually reported until this AM.

I have tickets on Alaska in two weeks- I've flown them before,a nd I'm not about to swap my tickets to another airline. This sucks, but honestly things like EWR ground control ATC worry me much more. If I was really going to worry, I'd worry about stuff like merging from 520 to I-5 South, where I'm much more likely to be hurt.

― lyra (lyra), Thursday, 29 December 2005 02:04 (twenty years ago)

Found it.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002707586_plane28m.html

Accident occured Monday afternoon.

Port of Seattle police weren't notified about the incident until Tuesday, when operations staffers for Alaska contacted them, airport spokesman Bob Parker said. The airline asked police to fill out a "hit-and-run report" because an employee struck the aircraft with a baggage tug, he added. The report was unavailable Tuesday.

NTSB, the Federal Aviation Administration, Alaska Airlines and Port of Seattle police are investigating, Struhsaker said.

― lyra (lyra), Thursday, 29 December 2005 02:06 (twenty years ago)

At least the plane didn't take off this time.

This begs many questions now.

― Dom iNut (donut), Friday, 6 January 2006 01:26 (twenty years ago)

Giant flying salmon, though.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Friday, 6 January 2006 01:33 (twenty years ago)

I wonder how often this happens at any airline. Airplane safety stories always come in clumps, because after a major safety incident, the media reports on anything safety related even if it's not serious or extraordinary.

― Super Cub (Debito), Friday, 6 January 2006 02:31 (twenty years ago)

>I wonder how often this happens at any airline. Airplane safety stories always come in clumps, because after a major safety incident, the media reports on anything safety related even if it's not serious or extraordinary.<

Airplane disasters that aren't are the shark attack story of winter 2005/2006. See: all those stupid live reports when a plane's landing gear doesn't work, where all the people who aren't experts are shitting themselves, hoping the thing goes Iowa City on live TV.

― Alan Conceicao (Alan Conceicao), Friday, 6 January 2006 02:35 (twenty years ago)

OK, THEY'RE ABUSING DOGS! FINAL FUCKING STRAW! POOR DOGGIE DOESN'T DESERVE THIS!

― Dom iNut (donut), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 05:38 (twenty years ago)

Ooooh, so glad my pup is spending the weekend on Bainbridge Island while I fly Alaska home to NJ...poor collie!

― lyra (lyra), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 05:45 (twenty years ago)

And an FAA fine for not having emergency-exit lights on almost half a thousand flights

― Dom iNut (donut), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 06:17 (twenty years ago)

After three incidents involving a contractor, Alaska Airlines had another mishap Wednesday, this time caused by its own mechanics when a jet's landing-gear door was left open, causing strong vibrations and forcing the pilot to make an emergency return to Seattle within minutes after takeoff.
"The second the plane lifted off, it wasn't anything dramatic, but you could feel the resistance," said Nick Block, 21, a passenger on Flight 536 to Burbank, Calif.
A different Alaska plane serving the same flight made an emergency landing Dec. 26 at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after a hole blew open in the fuselage. That was the first of three recent problems blamed on employees of Menzies Aviation, the company to which Alaska outsourced its baggage handling.

But yesterday's problem was caused by Alaska's own mechanics.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002734900_alaska12.html

― lyra (lyra), Thursday, 12 January 2006 19:24 (twenty years ago)

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